Adjustable connecting device for wrist watch bracelets



June 6, 1961 w. c. BOOTS 2,986,794

ADJUSTABLE CONNECTING DEVICE FOR WRIST WATCH BRACELETS Filed April 11, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 6, 1961 w. c. BOOTS 2,986,794 ADJUSTABLE CONNECTING DEVICE FOR WRIST WATCH BRACELETS Filed April 11, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent Products Incorporated, Attleboro, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed Apr. 11, 1958, Ser. No. 727,876 12 Claims. (Cl. 24-265) This invention comprises a new and improved connecting device for use between a watch frame and its wrist band or bracelet.

Watch cases are generally manufactured with projecting attaching lugs. differently spaced in different sizes and styles of case and carrying between them a pintal which is the connecting element of the watch case, and is designed to be contained within an encircling element of the wrist band. Heretofore, it has been necessary to stock an assortment of Wrist bands having connecting devices of various widths or'to carry out individual fitting operations in order to insure accurate and reliable connection with the pin and lugs of the case.

The principal object of the present invention is to obviate this necessity by providing a novel connecting device that may constitute a permanent part of each wrist band and that has the capacity for adjustment to make the same perfect fit with the attaching lugs of all the different spacings over'the full range ordinarily encountered. Consideration has been given to effecting this result without in any way impairing the ornamental appearance of the connection and, on the contrary, to improve the ornamental etfect of the wrist band.

Going more into detail, the connecting device comprises a base plate which may be formed as one of the links or attached to one of the links of a wrist band and which has a pair of carrier plates having aligned oppositely disposed barrels for containing the pin element of the watch case together with means for independently retaining said carrier members on the base plate in different positions of widthwise adjustment. Thus the carrier members may be adjusted to bring the outer ends of the barrels into contact with the inner faces of the attaching lugs and held in such adjusted position regardless of the span of the lugs.

An important feature of my novel connecting device is that it has a pair of separable barrels formed as parts of carrier members in combination with ratchet mechanism for holding them in their various positions of lengthwise adjustment, which mechanism is entirely concealed in the finished article. The ratchet mechanism is thus fully protected'and may be incorporated advantageously in a connecting device of streamline, artistic design.

Preferably and as herein shown, the ratchet mechanism includes as a novel feature a single spring detent which is double acting in that it cooperates in ratchet fashion with the individual ratchet teeth or corrugations of both carrier members.

These and other features of the invention will. be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purpose of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view on an enlarged scale showing an end of the bracelet and a portion of the wrist watch,

FIG. 2 is a similar view. showing the same parts in inverted position,

Patented June 6, 1961 2 FIG. 5 is a cross-sectionalviewon the line 55 of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 4 viewing the assembly from a different angle. v

FIG. 7 is a view in perspective of a modified structure,

FIGS. 8 and 9 are views in perspective of a second modified structure, and

FIG. 10 is a sectional view of the detent spring on the line 1010 of FIG. 8.

In the accompanying drawings the watch 10 is shown as provided with attaching lugs 11 and 12 spaced widely apart and having bores to receive pins 13 projecting from a hollow pintal 14. The pins 13 are carried by plungers freely slidable within each hollow pintal and pressed outwardly by an intermediate compression spring 15. The pintals 14 are usually parts of the watch and the novel connecting devices of this invention comprises end links subof the bracelet equipped with barrels telescopically enclosing the pintals.

The watch bracelet itself is on conventional construction including top links 16, each enclosed in a more or less ornamental shell 16, and each pivotally connected at spaced points to three bottom links 17. Springs, not shown, hold the links yieldingly in contracted condition but permit expansion in the usual lazy-tongs fashion.

The connecting devices, one at each end of the bracelet, are components of the bracelet andeach includes a flat base plate 18 which corresponds somewhatto a bottom link and has a flat area or land. A short perforated arm 19 extends transversely from one end of the plate 18 and provides pivotal connection with one of the top links 16 shown in inverted FIG. 2. At the other end it is pivotally connected to one of the bottom linksv 17.

Arranged in superposed sliding relation upon the land of the plate 18 are right and, left barrel members 20 and 21, shown separately in FIG. 3. The member 20 has at one end a tubular barrel 22 which. merges at one side into a plate or fiat lateral extension provided in its surface with a series of ratchet teeth or corrugations 24. The entire'member is formed integrally of sheet metal and the barrel 22 has at one edge a lu-g 25 that lies onthe surface of the plate portion of the member.

The member 21 has at one edge a tubular barrel 23 and a plate portion or flat lateral extension provided in its lower surface, as seen in FIG. 3, with a series of ratchet teeth 30 corresponding to teeth 24 and located oppositely with respect to them when the plate portionsof the two members are superposed. The member 21 also has: a lug 28 projecting from its inner edge like the lug 25of the complementary member 20. The barrels may be conveniently adjusted by engaging the lugs 25 and 28 with a pointed instrument. The base plate 18 islongitudinally slotted and the plate portions of barrel members are both also longitudinally slotted near their opposite ends to re-- ceive a pair of hollow rivets 27 which project from the base plate 18 and hold these parts in assembled relation while permitting the barrel members to slide freely in and out with respect to the base plate 18 and each other in .what in effect is a three ply structure.

The base plate and the two flat carrier plates 20 an 21 are superposed and present substantial areas of fiat sliding contact, thus imparting a desirable degree of stability and stiffness to the connecting device as a whole.

3 teeth 30 of the barrel member 21 as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The upright portion of the T is folded over the plate portion of the barrel member and engages the ratchet teeth 24 thereon.

In order to hold the detent spring 26 in position and stationary with respect to the plate portions which it embraces, the base plate 18 is provided with a depressed recess 29 which extends inwardly from its inner edge and is of the proper dimensions to receive the upright part molded from the original T blank as itlies between the base plate .18 and the plate portion of the barrel member 20. Accordingly, either one or both of the barrel members may he slid longitudinally within the limits of their slots while the detent tits of the spring 26 click over the ratchet teeth 24 and 30.

The connecting device is completed by a box-shaped ornamental shell 32 corresponding in appearance to the shells 16 of the top links. The shell 32 is provided with attaching cars 34, 34' which are bent inwardly over the bottom of the base plate 18 as shown in FIG. 2. The car 34 is so located as to overlap the folded detent spring 26 and hold it positively against outward displacement, it being understood that the spring is held against sideways displacement by the portion thereof that fits within the recess 29 of the base plate.

The shell 32 merges at its outer edge into a tubular flange 33 shaped to receive telescopically the barrels 22 and 23 and supplement them in completely filling the space between the lugs 11 and 12 of the wrist watch 10, that is to say, the flange 33 encloses the inner ends of the two barrels 22 and 23 while their outer ends are adjusted to contact with the lugs 11 and 12 of the watch and held in that adjusted relation by the ratchet action of the spring detent 26. Adjustment of the two barrel members may be conveniently made by engaging and separating the lugs and 28 located as shown in FIG. 2 on the base plate 18.

In the modified construction shown in FIG. 7 the base plate 18 with'its perforated arm 19 corresponds to the same element previously described. The device has two barrelmembers 40 and 42 with slotted plate portions 41 and 43 arranged in superposed sliding relation upon the band of the base plate 18, but in this case, the registering outer edges of the plate portions are provided with individual rows of ratchet teeth'45. With these ratchet teeth 45 cooperates a spring wire detent 44 having its ends secured in the hollow rivets that hold the assembly together. The intermediate portion of the wire is given the form of a square loop and the sides of this loop engage the teeth 45 with ratchet action. To accommodate the loop of the detent, the base plate is provided with a slot 46 which gives the necessary play to the loop in clicking over the ratchet teeth 45 when either or both of the "barrel members are moved longitudinally in adjusting them to the spacing of the lugs 11 and 12 of the watch.

In the modified construction-of FIGS. 8 and 9 the base plate 18, as before, carries superposed plate portions 51 and 53 of members formed with complementary barrels 50 and 52. In this case the plate portions 51 and 53 are provided with internally and oppositely facing ratchet teeth as distinguished from the externally facing ratchet teeth'24 and 'of FIGS. 3 6. To this end the plate portion 53 is provided with 'an intermediate offset or bridge area 54 and ratchet teeth in the shape of corrugations are formed upon the inner face of this offset area. These lie opposite to and'slightly spaced from corresponding ratchet corrugationsSS formed in the upwardly facing plate portion 51.

V A' spring detent member 56 is provided with U-shaped en'ds arranged to embrace the superposed, plates 51 and '53 and with a central tongue. 57 having oppositely di- 'rected' detent 'tits whichcooperate in ratchet fashion with the ratchet corrugations between which 'the .tongue is interposed. "The outer shell 32 of FIG. 3 is employed 4 as a part of the construction of FIGS. 8 and 9 and the car 34' of the shell is bent over the back of the detent member 56 thus holding it in stationary position while leaving the plates 51 and 53 free for longitudinal adjusting movement with their barrels 50 and :52.

Having thus disclosed my invention'and described in detail a preferred embodiment thereof, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

'1. An adjustable connecting device for a wrist watch bracelet, comprising a pair of carrier members having aligned oppositely directed barrels and superposed fiat plate portions with oppositely directed corrugations, a base plate supporting said carrier members in sliding relation, and a U-shaped spring connected to the base plate and engaging with ratchet action the corrugations of the plate portions of both of said carrier members.

2. An adjustable connecting device for a wrist watch bracelet, comprising a base plate, a pair of carrier plates superposed upon the base plate, having corrugations on oppositely directed faces and each merging at one edge into a barrel, and a U-shaped spring having detents with the corrugations of both carrierplates and held in position by said baseplate.

3. An adjustable connecting device for a wrist watch braclet, comprising a base plate, a pair of carrier members having aligned barrels each merging into a flat lateral extension, the said extensions being superposed in sliding relation on said base plate and having corrugations upon oppositely directed faces, and a .single spring member having detents cooperating with said corrugations with ratchet action to hold them in different positions of spacing.

4. An adjustable connecting device for a wrist watch bracelet, comprising an end link having a plate portion, a pair of carrier members each having a barrel merging into a flat extension provided with a series of ratchet corrugations, the said flat extensions being superposed one above another in direct sliding contact on the plate portion of the end link with their corrugations extending in parallel directions, and a single spring detent element cooperatively associated 'with both series of corrugations for holding the carrier member in differentjpositions of adjustment.

5. An adjustable connecting device as defined in claim 4 in which the corrugations are formed in outwardly directed faces of the flat extensions, and the single spring detent element is folded to enclose them.

6. An adjustable connecting link for a wrist watch bracelet, comprising a base plate having a flat band with a surface depression at one edge, complimentary barrel members having a fiat extension arranged in superposed sliding relation upon the land of the base plate and being provided in their outside surface areas with ratchet teeth, and a detent spring filling the depression of the base plate and engaging the ratchet teeth of the extensions of both barrel members.

7. An adjustable connecting linkas defined in claim 6 in which the link is provided with an outer shell having :bendable attaching ears, one of which overlies the said detent spring and holds it in the edge depression of the base plate.

8. An adjustable connecting link for a wrist watch bracelet, comprising a base 'plate having a depressed .recess in one face, a pair of barrel members having flat slotted extensions arranged in superposed relation with ratchet teeth on their outer faces, studs holding the said extension upon the base plate, and a detent spring folded over .upon the ratchet teeth of both extensions and fitted into the depressed recess of the base plate.

9. An adjustable connecting link as defined in claim 6 including in its structure an outer shell having an attaching ear bent over. the base plate and enclosing the folded detent spring to prevent displacement thereof.

10. An adjustableconnecting link fora wrist watch bracelet, comprising a' base plate having a flat'land with upstanding rivets therein, right and left barrel members each merging at one side into a lateral extension having a longitudinal slot and being adjustably connected to the base plate through the medium of said slots and rivets,

one of said extensions being flat and corrugated on its upper face and the other extension having an upwardly offset portion corrugated on its lower face and being disposed above the corrugated portion of the other extension, and a detent held by the base plate in position sion having an elongated slot, said extensions being super- 15 posed upon the base plate and upon each other in sliding relation and connected to the base plate for limited adjusting movement thereon through the medium of their elongated slots and said rivets and being also corrugated with ratchet teeth upon their oppositely directed faces, and a forked stationary detent held by the base plate in position to embrace said superposed extensions and to engage the ratchet teeth of both extensions.

12. An adjustable connecting link for a wrist watch bracelet as defined in claim 11 further characterized in that the base plate is provided with a depressed recess in one edge wherein the detent is held against movement in 10 the adjusting direction of the barrel members.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS 1,005,813 France Apr. 16, 1952 1,007,537 Germany May 2, 1957 1,121,475 France Apr. 30, 1956 

